York Wedding Harpist

This article is for you if you are looking to hire a Wedding Harpist for your York wedding.

I was playing at a Wedding Fayre yesterday at York Pavilion Hotel in Fulford. This was so lovely as I am getting married there next month! So I was lucky enough to meet lots of suppliers and see the Ceremony room all decorated for a wedding. It’s always lovely to see Hayley and Craig on the events team too.

York Wedding harpist

Lots of couples were asking me about how it all works with booking a harpist for their wedding in York. So I thought I’d use today’s blog post to tell you what normally happens.

Booking a harpist for your York wedding

The first step is getting in touch with me and saying hello. Useful information to include in this first email would be the date and venue of your wedding. It’s also helpful to know which parts of the wedding you’d like music for (totally fine if you haven’t decided this yet of course).

What most couples go for is the Ceremony plus Drinks Reception package. Here’s what that includes:

  • background music while your guests take their seats before the Ceremony
  • your choice of entrance music
  • background music for the signing of the register
  • your choice of exit music
  • up to two hours of background music while your guests have their Drinks Reception (you’ll be having your photos taken at this point, as well as mingling with the guests)

This works really well because the harp makes for excellent background music – not too intrusive but audible enough to set a lovely atmosphere. Plus, the harp is such a beautiful and striking instrument visually, it looks lovely in photos too.

What music to choose

Anything you like! The beauty of hiring a harpist is that I’m there, live, and I can learn a song of your choice for your entrance and exit music. You don’t have to go for something traditional like Pachelbel’s Canon in D or the Wedding March. You could have a romantic song from your favourite film or even music from a video game that you both love!

What I can do is send you over a pdf of my repertoire list. If the song you’d like for your entrance or exit music isn’t on there, let me know and I’ll get hold of the music and learn it for you.

This is your wedding and your special day, so the more personal we can make it, the better.

What happens next is that I’ll send you a contract to sign to make sure I have all the correct details. I ask for 50% of the fee as a deposit, and the remaining 50% of the fee two weeks before the big day – payable by bank transfer.

I really hope this post has been helpful. If you have any questions or want to chat about harp music for your York wedding, do get in touch.

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Yorkshire Harpist – Angelina

My name is Angelina and I have been a Yorkshire harpist specialising in weddings for many years. I’m based in York and mainly cover the Yorkshire area. If you are looking for more information about having harp music at your wedding, keep reading…

Every wedding is special and unique, and I will help you create the perfect atmosphere with my harp playing.

What part of my wedding should I have harp music for?

That is completely up to you! There are plenty of options. I can play for your Wedding Ceremony, which creates a beautiful, elegant atmosphere. You would choose your entrance and exit music, something for before the ceremony, and during the register-signing. I am happy to provide ideas if you would like me to!

Some couples want background harp music for their Drinks Reception, which is the part of the wedding after the Ceremony but before everyone sits down to eat. Harp music sets the mood perfectly while you and your guests enjoy some drinks and canapés. The wonderful thing about harp music at your wedding is that, not only is the harp beautiful to look at, the sound of the harp is not overpowering. The harp is unlikely to drown out conversation among your guests. The harp is definitely gentle on the ears.

Another option is to have background harp music for your Wedding Breakfast, where I would play while you and your guests enjoy your meal. You can find details of the various packages available here.

On my Youtube channel I have a playlist dedicated to beautiful harp music that is ideal for weddings. You can have a listen here.

Favourite venues for Yorkshire harpist Angelina

Most recently I was invited to play the harp for the wedding of Vicky and David in The Hospitium, a beautiful, historic building nestled in the Museum Gardens in York.

I’m sure every Yorkshire harpist has played here many times. I have been playing for weddings in this venue for years and it is a firm favourite of mine. You can see from the photos just how elegant the space is (especially with my harp set up and ready to go):

a photo of a wedding ceremony venue. A table with flowers is in front of a harp
Yorkshire harpist set up and ready to play in York Hospitium
Yorkshire harpist set up in York Hospitium ready for a wedding ceremony

As ever, thanks for reading. If you’d like to get a quote for me to play for your wedding, drop me an email to angelinaegerton@gmail.com.

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How To Practice Piano Every Day

how to practice piano every day
Photo by Josh Hild on Unsplash

Having piano lessons is one of the most rewarding hobbies out there, but unless we practice regularly and with commitment, progress will be limited. In this article I’ll be giving you some ideas on how to practice piano every day, while finding enjoyment and musical fulfilment along the way.

I always say that 95% of your improvement happens between your piano lessons. Your weekly lesson is a great chance to check-in so your teacher can see how you’re doing, and set you some new goals. But without effective practice, you may not reach those goals.

I hope the following tips are helpful, they may not all be suitable for you and your particular schedule, but it might just give you a few ideas:

6 tips for How To Practice Piano Every Day:

1. Get clear on what you are practising

Without goals and targets, practice is going to feel muddled and pointless. You hopefully always leave your piano lessons with a clear idea of what is expected of you for your next lesson.

You might be trying to memorise a piece, you might be trying to bring out the dynamics, or maybe you’re simply trying to get a particular section to a consistent speed. Whatever you’re working on, make sure you’re super clear and focussed on that.

With my students, I always make sure they have a notebook for lesson notes, where I try to be as clear as possible about what needs to be practised that week. Not all teachers do this and that is fine, but either way, having a record of your lessons, what you went through, what you learned, and what you need to practice is truly invaluable.

2. Set a realistic goal for practice time

Practice is hard mental work. No, wait a sec… focussed practice is hard mental work. Very few people can practice for hours on end with concentration and focus, especially in our world of distractions, dopamine addiction and social media notifications.

My advice? Set a realistic time goal for your practice. For beginners and children, it might only be ten minutes. But you can do so much in ten focussed minutes. For more intermediate players it might be twenty or twenty-five minutes. Whatever you decide, set a timer, and then keep your phone away from you for the duration of your practice. Smaller chunks every day will achieve so much more than a panic-stricken couple of hours on the morning of your lesson.

3. Practice at the same time each day

This is where we will all be different. For me, I do my best work in the morning, so that’s when I try to practice. We’re trying to build a habit here to practice the piano every day, so try to create a routine for your practice. Maybe you do it first thing in the morning, so it’s done for the day. Maybe for you, after work is the best time, and a good way to switch off from work. Maybe it’s after the kids have gone to bed (if they can sleep through it of course!)

4. Build a habit stack

If you really want to know how to practice piano every day, try building other habits around your practice. You could make yourself a cup of tea to drink while you practice, or do it right after you brush your teeth in the morning. For children, it could be after school but before food or homework. If it’s in the schedule and built around other habits, it is more likely to get done.

5. Remember that the hardest part is starting

It’s like going for a run, the hardest step is over your own doorstep. With the piano, the hardest part is the mental reluctance to just sit down and start. This is just your mind wanting to avoid the challenge of practising. Challenge yourself to just do five minutes (time it), once five minutes is up, you’ll probably be happy to carry on, but if not – no worries! We’re trying to build a habit here, it’s what you do most days that counts. Forcing yourself when it is just not happening will only make you more reluctant the following day.

6. Practice the hardest things first

My Auntie Janet always used to say to me: “Do the things you have to do before the things you want to do.”

This is an excellent motto for practice. That difficult piece you avoid? Start with the bit you are really struggling with. Melodic minors proving elusive? Start with those.

This has a few benefits, firstly, you do the hardest practice when your mind is still fresh, and secondly, you then can practice your other things knowing that you’ve already tackled the biggest challenge. Practising all your favourite pieces and then trying to summon the motivation to practice the scary piece is horrible. Save yourself from this torment and do the hard thing first.

So those are just a few tips on building a daily practice habit. If you’d like to get in touch with me about piano lessons in York, click here. You may find this blog post interesting too.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below – how do you plan to make practice a daily habit?

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Piano Lessons in York

Are you looking for piano lessons in York? My name is Angelina and I teach the piano from my home in Foxwood, York. Read on to find out more about booking in for your piano lessons in York.

In this article I’m going to talk about:

  1. Who piano lessons are for.
  2. Why you should book in with me.
  3. What piano lessons involve.
  4. Do you need a piano at home?
  5. Why it’s better to book direct, rather than go through an agency.
Piano lessons in York
Photo by Jordan Whitfield on Unsplash

Who piano lessons are for

Piano lessons are for anyone who is interested and wants to play the piano! My students are a mix of adults and children. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never read music before or even touched an instrument before, we’ll go through everything you need to know.

Some of my adult beginners perhaps played piano or another instrument when they were at school, and are just coming back to it now that they have time to devote to a new hobby.

Piano lessons are a great choice for children. Not only do music lessons encourage creativity and musicality, music lessons also improve a child’s concentration and ability to focus. Piano lessons can also improve a child’s self-confidence and self-discipline, as a certain amount of discipline is needed to cultivate a regular practice habit.

Students who learn an instrument tend to get higher grades in school, and having an extra-curricular activity will be a welcome break from school work too. It’s a win-win.

Why you should book in with me

My name is Angelina and I teach piano lessons in York. I have been playing the piano for as long as I can remember. My father, John Warburton, taught me the piano from around the age of four. Along with the harp, I studied the piano at Chetham’s School of Music with Jonathan Middleton, where I achieved my Grade 8 Distinction. Every year I would compete at Blackpool Music Festival, and won several trophies along the way, both as a soloist and for playing duets with my dad.

Since then, I have played and taught the piano, and have recently started to play the organ at a local parish church. Although I primarily earn my gigging money with the harp, I have a passion for teaching the piano – especially beginners. Learning to read music and play the piano is such a rewarding thing to do. I can’t recommend it enough.

What Piano Lessons involve

Piano lessons with me are usually 45 minutes long. Every lesson is different of course and will take into account your personal goals with the piano.

A standard beginner piano lesson will usually involve some theory learning, which takes place at the piano, some scales to warm up and then the pieces that you are currently working on. I use a notebook to keep track of your progress and to set little goals from lesson to lesson, so you always know exactly what you’re aiming to achieve for your next lesson.

Do you need a piano at home?

You will need an instrument to practice on, yes. However, electric pianos are an affordable option and don’t take up too much space. Lots of people are actually trying to get rid of their pianos, so you may be able to get an older piano for free, or for a very small amount of money, and then you’d pay a piano mover to bring it to your house.

Use my contact form to get in touch if you’ve seen a piano online that you’d like an opinion on. If you’re buying an older piano, you may need to spend some money having it tuned, there will be costs involved, but it is lovely having a real piano in your house (I’m still of the opinion that every home needs a piano).

What a lot of students do is start out with an electric piano, and invest in a real piano once they know that they love their lessons and want to carry on long-term.

Why it’s better to book direct, instead of using an agency

The internet is full of agencies these days, which, in my opinion, makes life harder for self-employed musicians. These sites can take up to 25-30% of the fee for each lesson, meaning less of your money goes towards the hard-working musician, and a substantial proportion is just going towards some agency who did nothing more than provide you with your teacher’s name.

Whether you choose me as your teacher or not, my advice would be to book directly with the teacher of your choice, ideally via email so everything’s in writing.

So that’s about it for now – if you have any questions or wish to chat further about your piano lessons in York, use the contact form and get in touch.

If you are interested in hearing from me in the form of my monthly newsletter, click here to join my email list.

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Feed The Birds Harp Cover // Mary Poppins

feed the birds harp cover
Mary Poppins

In a recent twitch stream, a viewer asked if I could play a harp cover of Feed The Birds from Mary Poppins. I have always loved the film, so I immediately downloaded the music and started to learn it.

I am so pleased with the result!

If you enjoy these harp covers of mine, do consider heading over to my YouTube channel and subscribing.

Feed The Birds and other classics…

The wonderful thing about playing songs like Feed The Birds is that everyone knows and loves this music. Last week I had the opportunity to go and play a concert at the home where my father now lives. He is suffering with Alzheimer’s and needs a lot of care these days.

I played a mixture of light classical music that people generally have heard before, things like Debussy’s Clair de Lune and Pachelbel’s Canon in D. There were also some harp covers of Disney songs (including Feed The Birds). I also played some other songs from shows such as Carousel, Cats, Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera.

The very energetic piece Harpicide at Midnight by Pearl Chertok was the final piece in my programme. Even though it’s not well-known by non-harpists, everyone enjoys it because it is so jazzy. It really challenges people’s perception of what the harp is capable of.

I can’t believe it’s not Rutter…

In other recent events, I have played for two performances of John Rutter’s Requiem and have another performance lined up for this coming Saturday. It’s not often I’ll get a group of concerts like this, all with the same repertoire. Honestly though, I’m enjoying playing in front of a live audience again so much. The pandemic has taken so much from us, I have only performed a handful of times since March 2020, but hopefully the worst is behind us.

Announcement

I have been doing some work on my website recently, and I now have an online booking system for online harp lessons and online piano lessons.

You can now book in for a free 30-minute consultation if you are considering learning the harp or the piano. click here to find an available time to book in.

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GAME OF THRONES Harp Cover

The latest video on my YouTube channel is a Game of Thrones harp cover.

I recently read A Song of Ice and Fire and watched a few seasons of Game of Thrones for the first time.

game of thrones harp cover

The theme music is so epic I found an arrangement and recorded it for my YouTube channel. Alongside the Game of Thrones harp cover, you can find lots of other covers, as well as various harp pieces that I love.

I actually recorded this video while live-streaming on Twitch. As a musician, I’m so glad I found twitch. I usually live-stream there twice a week, on Wednesday and Sunday evenings for a couple of hours. There’s a lovely community over there and it’s a great place to hang out, chat, practice, and of course, to play some of your requests too.

Due to the pandemic, I’ve been pretty much unable to perform since around February 2020. I find it so special to feel like I’m playing for an audience again. And, because it’s via the internet, I don’t even have to move my harp or drive anywhere. It’s every harpist’s dream!

Post-pandemic

Aside from streaming, I’m happy to say life is getting busy again. I’ve started playing the organ at a nearby village church. I’m definitely not a qualified organist and am learning as I go, but I’m really enjoying it and love spending time in the community this way.

I’ve also just accepted the post of Harp Tutor for Yorkshire Young Musicians. This is a really exciting teaching opportunity and I can’t wait to dive in.

I’ve got lots of ideas for future YouTube videos for my channel, so make sure you are subscribed. If you have any questions about the harp, or any requests for future covers, definitely let me know – I’d love to hear from you.

In the meantime, there’s a box on the right hand side of this page where you can sign up to receive these updates in your email inbox. It’s a great way to stay in touch.

p.s. if you enjoyed this video, you’ll enjoy this video of Baby Mine from Dumbo.

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Learn to play the harp

Whether you’ve wanted to learn to play the harp since you were a child, or you’re looking to pick up a beautiful and unique hobby, learning to play the harp is a rewarding activity that can bring a lot of joy to your life.

learn to play the harp
Learning the harp is a life-long journey

In this post I’ll be outlining a few things to think about before beginning to learn to play the harp.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

  1. Do I want online harp lessons or in-person harp lessons?
  2. Which harp to buy, lever harp or pedal harp?
  3. Do I need to know music theory?
  4. Committing to the journey of learning an instrument.
  5. Defining your goals

Do I want to learn to play the harp online or in-person?

At the time of writing we’re still in the midst of Covid-19 lockdown and we must take this very seriously.

Online lessons are our only option at the moment, but thanks to modern technology it is a viable option. You can learn to play the harp both online and in-person, have a think about which is right for you.

  • In-person lessons are a great choice if you can find a local teacher. I live in York and teach from my home (Covid guidelines permitting). So if you’d like some harp lessons in York – pop me an email.
  • Online lessons are an option if you’d like to learn with a specific teacher, but live too far away. The harp is an unusual instrument and teachers can be hard to find. Zoom and facetime are helping with this issue.
  • Another thing to think about is portability of your instrument. We’ll talk more about this later, but if you’re playing a 20-string lever harp, it’s much easier to come to my house for lessons than if you’re carting around a 47-string concert grand. The harp can be tricky to move, trust me, I’ve been there. If you don’t have a car, or your car isn’t big enough for your harp, online lessons are probably the right option for you.

Which harp to buy? Lever harp or Pedal harp?

Ahh, this is a big question, choosing your instrument can feel like you’re wandering into Olivander’s ready to choose your first wand (where are my fellow Harry Potter fans?) Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you that the harp chooses the harpist, but there are some things to consider.

  • Price – what’s your budget? Pedal harps are significantly more expensive than lever harps, not only to buy but to maintain and transport. Lever harps are not cheap but often more realistic that forking out for a concert grand – unless you have a spare £18k.
  • Space – if you live in a studio apartment, get a smaller harp.
  • Commitment – if you’re unsure how much you will like learning the harp, my advice to you is this: hire a lever harp to begin with – I can recommend a company that does this. This way, you get a good quality harp to try, and if you decide to purchase it later, that’s an option for you.
  • Speaking of quality – DO NOT BUY A HARP FROM EBAY without at least emailing a harpist to check it for any red flags. I will happily look over a listing you think looks good and give you my thoughts as to whether it’s a good price for what it is. Harps are expensive, but once you’ve decided on your budget, focus on quality over everything else. It’s better to buy a simple, well-made 32 string lever harp than a rickety old 36 string harp that has all the wrong strings, no levers and is falling to bits.
  • My general advice for beginners is to look for a 34 string lever harp. This gives you a good compromise between range, price and portability. You always have the option of ‘upgrading’ to a pedal harp later if you really want to.

What about music theory?

Have you ever learned to read music? Perhaps you learned an instrument at school and already have your Grade 5 Music Theory, or perhaps you’re looking for lessons for your child who doesn’t read music yet.

  • If you can’t read music yet, never fear! It’s easy to get the basics and from there it’s just practice. I happen to love teaching music theory as it’s such rewarding knowledge to have.
  • Be open with your prospective teacher and they will help you with whatever stage you’re at with music theory.
  • If you’re comfortable reading music we’ll dive straight in and fill in any theory gaps along the way. If you’re new to music, we’ll spend a small part of each lesson focussed on music theory and setting up your foundation of knowledge. This means you are ready to apply this knowledge to your music reading and playing.

Commit to the journey

Learning an instrument is a journey. In a world of instant gratification and next-day delivery of anything we want, it can feel like a bit of a shock to progress at something slowly and mindfully. It may be simply a hobby, but it will still require effort, anyone who says otherwise is being dishonest.

  • Trust your teacher, take their advice. Surrender yourself to being a beginner for a while.
  • Think about how much time you have for practise between lessons. Remember that little and often will always beat last-minute cramming on the morning of your lesson. Twenty minutes, six days a week will achieve so much more than a two-hour session once a week.
  • It may not feel like it now, but there will be times when you don’t want to practice. Practice is a matter of discipline rather than motivation. Start small, just ten minutes here and there, and build up as much as you want to (without injuring yourself, obviously).

Define your goals

…and share them with your teacher. Whether you want to just learn to play the harp for your own enjoyment or be the next harpist for Florence and the Machine, think about it, define it, and talk about it with your teacher.

  • Here are a few examples of goals: taking an exam, memorising a piece, or playing in front of people at a concert – Covid permitting. Perhaps your child wants to audition for an orchestra or music school. One of my proudest achievements as a teacher is guiding one of my students towards her audition for Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester. She was offered a place and loves it there.
  • If exams aren’t your thing, start listening to all sorts of music and see which styles appeal to you. Talk about your findings with your teacher and see if you can learn a piece in that style.
  • We all have different goals when it comes to the harp. Our goals can and should change over time for us to keep developing as musicians.

Learn to play the harp – Closing thoughts

I hope you’ve found this article helpful and informative on your quest to learn to play the harp. Here are a few take home points from me:

  • Finding a harp and a harp teacher is just the start of your exciting journey with this beautiful instrument
  • Don’t buy a harp from eBay
  • Decide how much you can invest in the harp, both in terms of time spent practising and money to spend on purchasing/hiring the instrument and caring for it responsibly
  • Decide what you want from your harp lessons and discuss with your teacher
  • Don’t buy a harp from eBay

If you have any questions or would like ask me about lessons, please email me: angelinaegerton@gmail.com

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A long-overdue catch up

The last time I posted on this website was July 2019.

SO much has happened since then so today’s post is going to fill in a few gaps, ready to be expanded on later.

I guess I’ve been off the radar for a number of reasons. I got married in August 2019 to my wonderful husband Tim. We celebrated our first wedding anniversary a few weeks ago – not with the spa break that I was originally hoping for due to Covid – but with a dinner out and a cocktail or two.

Our honeymoon was in Lanzarote at the end of September and a bit of October 2019. Looking back, we were so fortunate to be able to have our wedding and honeymoon as normal. We planned it all so last minute it would definitely have been more ‘normal’ to wait until 2020 to have our wedding. Thank goodness we didn’t! My heart truly goes out to couples doing their wedding planning this year. What a nightmare.

I’m taking the focus of this website away from exclusively harp content. I want to share more aspects of my life on here, so let’s start now.

I was delighted to discover I was pregnant on January 17th 2020. I spent the next few weeks reading every pregnancy book I could get my hands on, getting really excited with my family and friends and just preparing myself for this monumental change that was coming to Tim and me. Unfortunately my pregnancy ended with a miscarriage at just over nine weeks. 

Miscarriage – as I’m sure lots of you know – is one of the most devastating things a person can go through. It’s not something that leaves you and the pain doesn’t heal. It has softened with time though, and as what would have been my due date approaches, I can see clearly that if a baby is in our future, it will come along when the time is right. Lockdown isn’t the best time to go through a pregnancy. I may share our Trying to Conceive (TTC) journey a bit more on here as it may be of help and comfort to other women trying to start a family. No one talks about miscarriage, which is crazy as it is so common and utterly traumatising for those who experience it.

So I spent late February and early March going through and recovering from that. I cancelled a few bits of work to allow me to recover properly, only to be immediately thrust into lockdown. As a self-employed musician, I was devastated again to find my diary for the year suddenly empty, with no income for the foreseeable future.

Quite a few of my students happily transitioned to online teaching, which, along with the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme, has meant that Tim and I have sort-of been able to stay afloat financially. Tim has been setting up our garage gym for his personal training business, ready to see clients privately here in York.

My Yoga Teacher Training has also been put on pause, hopefully to resume this September, although like everything else, it’s not set in stone. 

This post makes it sound like this year has been just awful, but there have been so many wonderful moments too:

  • Tim and I have been able to spend way more time together than we ever thought we would, and we still like each other, yay!
  • We are settled in our new house so it’s been really cosy and private being in lockdown together.
  • I’ve realised that, when I go back to gigging regularly, I’m going to say no to gigs that are more than 50 miles away. I don’t want to do that much driving any more. I’ve been so happy having a quieter, calmer pace of life and that is something I want to take with me into the future.

I’d love to hear from you, what aspects of lockdown will you be taking with you once (and if) restrictions are lifted?

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Soul Trader Podcast

Hello, I’ve been working on an exciting new project for a few weeks now so I thought it was definitely time to share it with you. I have created a podcast called Soul Trader.

Soul Trader Podcast artwork
Soul Trader Podcast artwork

What is Soul Trader about?


I want to share ideas of ways to be at our most productive when working for ourselves.

This will be from a holistic, health-driven perspective. I’m not interested in hustling 24/7. Sorry. I’m interested in living a balanced, healthy and sustainable life for as long as possible.

Recent episodes of Soul Trader take a dive into the world of Human Design – I’ve discovered that I am a Splenic Projector 1/3. In previous episodes I’ve also looked at handling finances, scheduling our time as freelancers, the importance of resting enough, and the pitfalls of too much screen time.

So much media that we see on a daily basis glorifies the ‘hustle’, grinding 24/7 until we finally make it. We’re aiming for 5-figure months or whatever lofty goals we set ourselves, ‘inspired’ by social media. We can aim for these goals, but at what expense? Personally, my mental and physical health is my top priority, and I will not prioritise work over sleep or any other form of self-care. We work to live – not the other way around.

So if Soul Trader podcast sounds like it might be your cup of tea, I’ll see you over there. You can find it wherever you normally get your podcasts. It has been something of a passion-project of mine, so I hope it brings value to you.

If this sounds like something you might be interested in, please check out Soul Trader – the holistic approach to freelancing.

There is also a Soul Trader Instagram page, although I’m experimenting with taking breaks from social media here and there. Maybe a future episode will go more in-depth on our relationship with social media. Leave me a comment below if this would be of interest to you.

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How To Be Productive At Home

It’s the start of a new week. Are you organised and ready for the next seven days? In this post I’m going to share what I do to give myself the best possible start to the week. Here are five tips for how to be productive at home.

how to be productive at home
Photo by Marcin Skalij on Unsplash

Tip #1 – Track Your Time

For me, a good week begins on Sunday evening. I learned a technique called Calendar Blocking from YouTuber Amy Landino, and I find it really helps me track my time. It also ensures that I am making time for the important things. I literally schedule everything. Mealtimes, exercise classes/gym workouts, harp practice, admin (emails, working on my website etc.), as well as chill time in the evening and what time I start getting ready for bed. Obviously appointments, students and gigs are all on there to begin with. For me, a to-do list is pretty much useless unless I actually put those things on my calendar and plan a time for them.

When you see all the hours of the day laid out in front of you, you quickly realise you probably do have time to get most things done. The trick is to do just one thing at a time, we get more done overall. Trust me.

Personally, I use my google calendar, because that way it’s easy to change things around. It automatically syncs with Apple ical that I use on my laptop, phone and iPad. You may prefer a paper schedule (reminder: it’s 2022) but do whatever works for you.

Tip #2 – Get Up Early, ready for a productive day at home

My aim is to get up at 7:30am every weekday. I have tried many, many ways of doing this (I love my sleep) but currently what seems to be working is to have my Lumie light up ready for 7am, and to have my phone alarm go off at 7:30am. Rest is just so important and I do prioritise sleep. I will admit to often – ok every day – having a cup of tea in bed before getting up and on with the day. We all need to find little pockets of our schedules for little treats and things we enjoy, otherwise – what’s the point?

The important thing is, I’m waking up at the same time each day. I’m allowing my body to get into the rhythm of this schedule because I know that mornings are my most productive time.

Tip #3 – Organise your tasks with intention

My mornings are 100% more productive than my afternoons, they just are.

So for me, I know I need to maximise this time and use it for the more mentally taxing tasks. I’m writing this very blog at 9:30am. Examples of good morning tasks would be:

  1. Practising your instrument
  2. Creating Content
  3. Exercising
  4. Making future plans and taking steps towards them

Not-so-good morning tasks would be:

  1. Checking emails
  2. Housework, which doesn’t require much mental energy and can be done later
  3. Contracts, Invoices and other admin
  4. Taking calls
  5. Checking bank balances (too depressing potentially anxiety-inducing)

I know sometimes we can’t have the perfect day and sometimes we need to reply to emails first thing. But in an ideal scenario, anything where your time is going to be governed by someone else should take place after you’ve spent the morning on your own thing. What’s the point of learning how to be productive at home when we don’t use that productivity to work towards our most important goals?

Tip #4 – Decide when to stop for the day, and actually stop.

When you often work from home, as I do, your work is never ‘done’, there’s always more you can do. But for our own mental health it’s important to have some down time.  Schedule it in and you’ll feel fabulous when you reach ‘Chill Time’ and you know you’ve worked hard and have earned a rest.

I have tried scheduling every single day, seven days a week, and at the moment that is simply not sustainable for me. It’s easy to end up falling off the wagon completely and binging on Making a Murderer at 2pm during the week. Learning how to be productive at home means you have sustainable habits that you can do all the time. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Calendar Blocking Monday-Friday is a good compromise for me and means that I can really relax at the weekend (often just in time for that week’s gig!) but you know what I mean, I’m not on the hamster wheel of practice and admin like I am on weekdays.

Another point on this, when it is chill time, for heaven’s sake don’t start checking emails on your phone. That’s not true down time and you won’t feel refreshed and ready to jump back in the next time your calendar says ‘admin’. Occupy yourself with something completely different. Cooking, reading, netflix, whatever, just try not to have your phone alerting you for work stuff.

Tip #5 – limit social media to be truly productive at home

This is a huge secret when it comes down to how to be productive at home. Quitting social media will probably have an article all of its own at some point. Take those social media apps off your phone and stand back in amazement at how much more you get done.

I am currently doing this and it honestly makes me not want to go back to Facebook or Instagram (I already deleted TikTok and Twitter). Bear in mind that I am saying this as a musician, and people love to tell us how important social media is to ‘get our names out there’ – out where, exactly?

I’d rather not be on there, have the time to practice, make sure my website is boom ting and get work that way. Not to mention the mental health issues social media creates. The way it is threatening our very democracy and putting young people in danger from predators and online bullying is quite frankly disturbing.

So those are my five tips that I personally try to use to have my most productive day possible. Learning how to be productive at home will be different for everyone, try different things and see what works for you.

I hope you find these tips helpful, let me know if you decide to try any of them out and how you get on. I wish I had had these tips when I was in college and freshly graduated. Maybe I wasn’t ready to properly knuckle down and go after the life that I want.

I am now. Are you?
A xx

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